December 14th, 2013 5:03 am

Small business advice: Hurry, many tax breaks expire at the end of the year.

Fifty-five federal tax breaks are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. Usually, many of these expiring tax provisions are extended at the last minute, but this year is shaping up to be different.

The pressure for additional revenue, combined with political gridlock, has greatly increased the likelihood that many of the most advantageous provisions will not be extended or will be reduced significantly. This challenges business owners to make difficult decisions before the year ends without knowing what rules will be in effect in 2014.

We have sifted through all the expiring tax provisions and narrowed the list down to the most important expiring break that every small business should consider taking advantage of before the end of the year.

Use Sec. 179 expensing/bonus depreciation opportunities

Current law enables firms to deduct the cost of purchasing assets like equipment, furniture, and computer software now instead of over a set period of years. The 2013 expensing limit is $500,000, and it is scheduled to drop significantly to $25,000 in 2014. The deduction begins to phase out when total qualified purchases for the year exceeds $2 million. If you have equipment needs, consider purchasing them in 2013.